


Almost Christmas

by angelus2hot



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Het
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-14
Updated: 2012-12-14
Packaged: 2017-11-21 09:51:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/596342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelus2hot/pseuds/angelus2hot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elena convinces Damon not to leave.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Almost Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** Almost Christmas  
>  **Fandom:** The Vampire Diaries  
>  **Characters/Pairing:** Damon/Elena, Stefan  
>  **Rating:** PG-13  
>  **Word Count:** 1,659  
>  **Prompt:** Damon hates Christmas. He decides now is the perfect time to keep his end of the deal by leaving MF. As he carries his bags out to the Camaro, Elena shows up is determined to not only convince him to stay, but give him a reason to smile during the holidays.  
>  **A/N:** written for katelyncarolexo @ [The Damon & Elena Holiday XCHNG](http://tvdmixing.livejournal.com/25527.html)

Elena pushed her dark hair out of her eyes as she walked into the room. “Where’s Damon?”

Stefan shrugged his shoulders as he poured himself a glass of scotch. “He’s leaving.”

Her mouth opened in shock. Whatever she had been expecting Stefan to say it certainly hadn’t been that. “But it’s Christmas Eve.” 

“That’s one of the reasons he’s leaving.”

Elena’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “Why?”

“Because he hates Christmas.” 

“Be serious, Stefan. No one leaves because they hate a holiday.”

“I am. Damon really does hate Christmas. But you’re right it is more than that.” The younger Salvatore brother downed the contents of his glass in one gulp before he continued, “He’s leaving now because he has decided he’s going to honor the deal he and I made a few months ago.

“The deal?” For some reason she was drawing a blank. Shouldn’t she know what Stefan was talking about?

“Damon and I had made a deal that no matter which one of us you chose the other one would leave Mystic Falls for good.” Stefan stared into the bottom of his empty glass as if it held the answers to the questions he sought.

“But that was before I....”

He couldn’t stop himself from interrupting. “Before you became a vampire?” Stefan raised his head to look at her as he sat the glass down onto the counter. “Yeah. I know.”

“I’m sorry, Stefan.”

“It’s okay, Elena.” Before she could interrupt he held up his hand to stop her. “Things change. I understand. I really do.” A sad smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. “But what I don’t understand is why you haven’t told Damon yet.”

“I didn’t...” She swallowed hard and tried again. “I don’t know how to tell him. What am I supposed to say to him, Stefan?”

“You tell him the truth.” Stefan walked closer to Elena until he had stopped in front of her. He let his arms slid around her, to hold her one last time. “I love you, Elena.” Stefan swallowed hard as his voice broke.

“I love you too, Stefan. I will always love you.” Tears fell silently down her cheeks. 

“I know.” He whispered against the top of her head. “It’s just that you love Damon more.” As she made to interrupt he shushed her. He couldn’t talk about it any longer. “Tell him how you feel.” Without another word, he placed a soft kiss on Elena’s forehead before he dropped his arms, turned around and walked out of the room. Maybe Damon was right Christmas Eve was as good a time as any to leave Mystic Falls.

 

Elena walked around the front of the house. She watched as Damon threw his suitcase into the trunk of his car. “I heard you’re leaving.”

“That’s the general idea.”

“Why now, Damon? Why on Christmas Eve did you decide to leave?”

Damon shrugged his shoulders. “Why not? One day is as good as another to leave.”

“Were you at least going to say goodbye?” At the look on his face she knew the answer to her question without his having to say a word. “You were going to leave Mystic Falls without telling anyone goodbye?” Her voice broke. “Without telling me goodbye?”

“Look, Elena, I thought it would be better this way. Easier for all concerned.”

She wiped the tears from her eyes angrily as she glared at Damon. “So, I don’t even rate a goodbye?”

A loud sigh escaped him. “What do you want from me, Elena.” Damon had just wanted to leave without all the fuss of good-byes. Losing her to Stefan was hard enough but telling her goodbye was something he had never wanted to do.

“I want you to stay, Damon.”

He started shaking his head before she even finished speaking. “I can’t, Elena. Please don’t ask that of me.” 

“You promised you would never leave me again.”

Damon’s eyes shut as his own words washed over him. “That was before.” He opened his eyes. “Elena, I...” He just couldn’t do it. Damon let whatever he was going to say hang between them unsaid. He quickly turned away to pick up the last suitcase. “Besides shouldn’t you be back inside with your boyfriend getting ready to celebrate Christmas?”

_What was she going to say to make him stay? By the way, Damon, You don’t have to leave. I don’t have a boyfriend anymore._

A stunned Damon watched as tears suddenly filled her eyes. _What the hell?_ He dropped the suitcase onto the ground before he turned to take her into his arms. “What’s wrong, Elena? What did he do? I swear I will kick his ass.” He stroked her hair as her head fell onto his shoulder and her tears began to soak through his shirt. “Shh, Elena. It’s okay. Tell me what’s wrong, baby.”

She slid her arms around his waist and held onto him. Elena felt bad resorting to tears but she had to have more time to convince him to stay.

Damon was getting more nervous by the second. “You have to talk to me, Elena.” There was only one thing he could think of that would make her react this way. Stefan had done something stupid. Again. Brother or not he would kill the bastard for hurting her this way.

“It wasn’t Stefan.”

“Okay. If not my younger brother than who.” He put his fingers under her chin and tilted her face up until he could look her in the eyes. “Who hurt you like this, Elena. Tell me. Just say the name and I promise you the bastard will never hurt you again.”

“You promise?”

He nodded his head. She had to know he would do anything to keep her from being hurt. “I promise. I will make him pay for every tear you have shed. Just tell me who it was.”

Elena wiped the tears from her eyes as she snuggled back onto his shoulder. Finally, she whispered, “You.”

“Me?” Once more Damon titled her face until she was looking at him. “What the hell did I do? How did I hurt you?”

She pulled away. “You were going to leave me.”

Damon shook his head sadly. “Elena, I can’t do this. I can’t stay while you and my brother make kissy faces...”

“We do not make kissy faces!” She couldn’t believe he had said that.

“I only meant that I don’t... I can’t stay. And I don’t know why you would want me here either. You don’t want me to watch you with my brother knowing the whole time you’re with him I’m wishing you were with me, do you?” 

Slowly, she shook her head. “I’m not with Stefan anymore.” Elena voice was soft as she made the admission.

“What?

“We broke up. I realized I wasn’t being fair to him. That I wasn’t the same girl he fell in love with anymore. And no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make myself be her. She doesn’t exist.”

Damon felt as if he were blindsided. The news was a complete shock to him. No matter how long he had hoped this day would come he had, in all honesty, never thought it would. “When did this happen?”

“We broke up last month.”

 _Last month?_ He had thought that there was something a little off about Elena but he had attributed it to her still adjusting to being a vampire. But instead she had broken up with his brother. _Why didn’t she tell me?_

Damon wasn’t aware he had asked the question out loud until Elena answered him. 

“I didn’t know how to tell you.” She hung her head. “I didn’t want you to think I was a slut.” She ignored Damon’s snicker of laughter and continued, “It was bad enough that I had kept you and Stefan dangling for so long but then when I made a choice I hurt you. I knew that I had hurt you, Damon. But I didn’t know how to make it okay. And then I got turned into a vampire and well you know the rest.”

“That’s just it, Elena. I don’t know the rest. What happened? What changed your mind about my brother?”

“It’s not so much that I changed about him but that my feelings for you have grown stronger. I have always had feelings for you, Damon. You knew that. But what I thought was a simple crush because I was attracted to you had became something more. It took becoming a vampire to realize what that was.”

“What was it?” Damon held his breath as he waited impatiently for her to answer.

“Love. I had fallen in love with you, Damon.”

Damon’s mouth fell open. He had never thought he would ever hear those words from Elena. Not ever. “You love me?”

She nodded her head.

“Say it.”

“I love you, Damon. I love you more than I thought it was possible to love anyone.” She glanced down at the suitcase lying on the ground. What if after everything he still wanted to leave? “Please don’t leave me. I can’t.. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.” 

“Aren’t you going to tell me?”

Damon’s smile curled her toes. “I love you, Elena. I have loved you for a very long time.”

Elena shifted back into his arms, her head cradled against him. As she stared up at the man she loved she couldn’t help but ask, “So, why do you hate Christmas?”

“Who said I hated Christmas?”

“Damon.” 

“It doesn’t matter now.” After hearing the words he had wanted to hear for so long from Elena nothing mattered anymore, expect that he loved and was loved in return by Elena.

As his arms tightened around her, he lowered his head towards hers. Just before he kissed her he whispered against her lips, “Best almost Christmas ever.”


End file.
